Paradise, Tossed.

January 2, 2009

Reading: Genesis 3-4, Matthew 1

Yesterday, I asked you to use your imagination to visualize God creating the heavens and the Earth. Today, I want you to use that same imagination to visualize what would have been if not for that tragic Fall in today's Genesis reading.

Instead of violating the only commandment, Adam and Eve would have "been fruitful, and multiplied". Life would have been like a honeymoon vacation, and soon many children would have been born, all without labor pains or painful deliveries.

As the human race grows, so does the garden of Eden, and it spreads across the world. Cain never kills Abel, and Noah never needs to build an Ark. Babel is a holy city, as is Sodom and Gomorrah. Other Biblical figures enter in, as do other historical figures. Mozart and Einstein could meet together with Hilter, who would have never become the man that we know him as today.

The rest of history unravels as it did before, but is measured not by wars and empires, but advancements. I imagine that if the Fall had not occurred, we still would have technology, just not its dark side. In other words, we might have skyscrapers, computers, iPods, and other conveniences, but they would not be used against the will of God.

In fact, an unfallen world would have a God that we could see and walk with. There would be no atheists or agnostics. In fact, there would never be a need to invent those words. Also absent from the dictionary are words like war, disease, famine, prejudice, and crime.

I guess the question is, would people eventually wear clothes? I believe clothing was originally invented to hide shame. However, an unfallen world has no need of them, and people would walk around naked without any embarassment because the nude body would be appreciated, never lusted after. Of course, people would still have sex, but only within marital commitment. In a pre-fallen world, public sexual intercourse would probably not even be considered "dirty".

I realize that a post-fallen world probably shouldn't imagine that last paragraph, which is exactly my point. We simply cannot imagine that without our minds going into some pornographic realm. This is because we are fallen.

Part of me wants to say: "Nice work, Adam and Eve." For the sake of the taste of a fruit, they cast off a world without hardship. However, let us not be fooled. Every time we give into temptation, it will lead to some bit of paradise tossed.

The poet William Blake once wrote collections called "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience". In "Songs of Innocence" the poems are about happy things and no conflict, but "Songs of Experience" are not the same. My point is that we go from Innocence to Experience the moment we discover that there is even a world of Experience itself. From there, we cannot go back, any more than a prositute can return to virginity.

However, it is because of one virgin named Mary that we can go back. She had to carry the savior known as Jesus, who will eventually take us back to the unfallen world. Think of him as the Plan B.

Still, we will never know what it is truly like in Plan A. But what Adam and Eve did is done, and it can be undone with Jesus. He is the one who will take us back to a world without a fall, and he is ready to forgive the sins that tore the world apart.